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Updated: June 24, 2025
There exist, therefore, many intermediate varieties, or "mules," throughout the countries of the Andes, some of which have been mistaken for separate species. The vicuna being of such value, both inside and out, both in flesh and wool, is hunted by the mountain Indians with great assiduity.
Our only acquaintance in Dantzic was the Austrian resident, M. Abramson, to whom I brought letters of recommendation from Vicuna, and whose reception of us was polite even to extravagance.
It was as yet only an hour or so after daybreak for the vicuna hunt had occupied but a very short time and the capture of the condor a still shorter. Don Pablo was anxious to be gone, as he knew he was not beyond the reach of pursuit. A pair of the vicunas were hastily prepared, and packed upon a llama for use upon their journey. Thus furnished, the party resumed their route.
The vicuña inhabits the high plains of the Andes, though, unlike the guanaco, it rarely ventures up the rocky cliffs, as its hoofs are only calculated for the soft turf of the plains. It roams about in larger herds than the other eighteen or twenty in the herd and these are usually females under the protection and guidance of one polygamous old male.
The precipices became more lofty and difficult to scale, the mountain torrents more impetuous and dangerous to cross, the primitive suspension bridges more dilapidated and precarious, the patches of timber and vegetation more tenuous, the flocks of huanaco and vicuna larger and more frequent, the way more savage and forbidding, the storms more frequent and terrible, until at length it began to appear to Escombe as though the party had become entangled in a wilderness from which escape in any direction was impossible, and wherein they must all quickly perish in consequence of the unendurable rigours of the climate.
It would be as absurd, therefore, to call the giraffe a deer, as to consider it a species of camel, and perhaps more so. It may be regarded as an animal sui generis; but in making a series of groups such as we have here attempted it appears more natural to place it alongside the camels than elsewhere; and it is certainly as much like the true camel or dromedary as either the llama or vicuna.
Pack after pack was found to consist of merchandise vicuna wool, or dried provender for the galleons. The amount of silver found amounted to a bare two horse loads. Gold there was none. The jewels of the King's treasurer were not to be discovered. The angry sailors turned upon the muleteers for an explanation.
They then take to flight, at first slowly, but afterwards with the swiftness of the roe; while the male, true to his trust, hangs in the rear, and halts at intervals, as if to cover the retreat of the herd. The llama, guanaco, alpaco, and vicuna, although different species, will breed with each other; and it is certain that some of their hybrids will again produce young.
The vicuna, on the contrary, yields a wool which is eagerly sought after, and which in the Andes towns will sell for at least five times its weight in alpaca wool. Ponchos woven out of it are deemed the finest made, and command the fabulous price of 20 pounds or 30 pounds sterling.
"Our work was done a great day's work for my companion, who would realise nearly a hundred dollars for the produce of his day's sport. "This, however, he assured me was a very unusual piece of good luck. Often for days and even weeks, he would range the mountains without killing a single head either vicuna or guanaco, and only twice before had he succeeded in thus making a battue of a whole herd.
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